Frank Meza 2:53:10 at LA Marathon (70 years old) unofficial time (just finished)

Buh bye wrote:

Frank will disappear ...

As long as this happens, I’ll consider this thread a complete success.

Frank disappears a lot it seems. So, I would expect he will do so again. Must be one of his super powers. But anyway....

By the way, I LOVE the book title Dr. Meza and Mr. Hide. You, sir/ma'am, are a genius. I will buy 10 copies to give as Christmas gifts.

Getting back to business, as a follow-up to my last set, poster Frank Meza Report posted that the GoPro series was *after* the 10K, not before. Thank you. You’re right. I got on Google Street View and figured it out. I appreciate the assist.

And you noted that Frank was stretching for a while, too. I saw this collection before, but I figured in the interest of completeness, I’d do a photo sheet for the 10K mat, which is only about two blocks before the GoPro in my last post.

The first in the series is #4466, who crossed 10K at 7:35:18 am. You can see the timing mat in the photo. About 9 seconds later, with the female runner wearing pink socks, #1228, look next to her left hand in her solo shot. The invisible man Frank appears. #1228 crossed 10K at 7:35:27 a.m. Frank is easier to see in the next shot. Frank is still stretching when #24532 gets to the mat at 7:35:42 a.m. The next time we can see Frank, he has stopped stretching and is stepping into the street as our friend #1299 claps for someone, crossing the mat at 7:35:58 a.m. Runner #23383, the last runner we see before Frank, crossed 10K at 7:36:09 a.m.

In an anomaly that I can’t understand, Frank’s chip says he crossed 10K at 7:36:07 a.m., but in this series of photos, he was clearly behind #23383, and the runner in the same photo as Frank, #16809, hit the mat at 7:36:08 a.m. Anyway, regardless of this, Frank was at the curb stretching near the 10K mat for about 30 seconds before he stepped back into the street, and about 9 more seconds elapsed before he crossed the mat.

Frank crossed the 5K mat at 7:15:50 a.m., so if we subtract the roughly 40 seconds of stretching just before the 10K mat, Frank “ran” 19:27 for that 5K, a pace of 6:16/mile. Check my math, but close enough….

Remember, though—two blocks later, though, with the GoPro footage, Frank has turned invisible again. So, I would imagine, looking at the way this section of Glendale Boulevard is situated, Frank hit the 10K mat and went up either Santa Ynez or Montrose to resume his as yet unknown form of transport to the 15K mat.

#metoo Actually I win even more than you, because I noticed first that there was no evidence. Nothing to see here but a racist echochamber of trolls.

Took me a while v2 wrote:

Doesn't add anything to the thread. This is worth than worthless. This thread is over. LAM is not disqualifying him. Anti-Frankers have lost. Frank has lost. Running has lost. The only person winning here is me.

Rule No.1: Don't feed trolls. wrote:

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE EVERYBODY STOP RESPONDING TO THIS FRIGGIN' IDIOT

Your "solution" is to allow trolls who have the agenda of changing the narrative to go unchallenged

Your analyses have been excellent work, only people who don't want to see the truth could fail to understand how damning they are individually, let alone taken together.

That's pretty convincing. Lets hope the chest gets disqualified.

Could someone within LAM be involved in the fraud?

Valid Question wrote:

Could someone within LAM be involved in the fraud?

Absolutely. Do you remember when Frank was finishing and the announcer at the finish line was yelling how amazing Frank is. So he had to know who he was beforehand.

Valid Question wrote:

Could someone within LAM be involved in the fraud?

Wow, there's a line of enquiry no one's thought of before.

Ten pages of "Could LAM be involved in the fraud?" coming up.

Definately needs further investigation. wrote:

Wow, there's a line of enquiry no one's thought of before.

Yes, I reckon this goes all the way to the White House (Heavy sarcasm for the slow learners)

Blame Trump.

Valid Question wrote:

Could someone within LAM be involved in the fraud?

No.

Fred Gwynne wrote:

Valid Question wrote:

Could someone within LAM be involved in the fraud?

Absolutely. Do you remember when Frank was finishing and the announcer at the finish line was yelling how amazing Frank is. So he had to know who he was beforehand.

either you've never finished a race or spectated at a finish line or i've missed the sarcasm.

why bother wrote:

either you've never finished a race or spectated at a finish line or i've missed the sarcasm.

Do you think we need to explain stuff this basic for the slow learner?

ExpertKipWatcher wrote:

Definately needs further investigation. wrote:

Wow, there's a line of enquiry no one's thought of before.

Yes, I reckon this goes all the way to the White House (Heavy sarcasm for the slow learners)

Who's the mole whose been feeding Derek information?

(I've been watching the seasons of 24 that I missed years ago)

Valid Question wrote:

Could someone within LAM be involved in the fraud?

I've wondered this myself. Not only do they have all the info Derek Murphy has written about, but they have access to all the timing data. Also, they likely have access to any/all of the high resolution photos from the official race photographers. In a past life I was the logistics director for a large race/events production company and we were usually provided with CD's containing the original photos that we were then able to use for marketing purposes.

However, the LA Times article and Derek in his most recent post have said that they are in the process of DQ'ing him, so hopefully the reason they are taking so long is they are going back through all the races he has done with them and preparing to DQ him from all the races. They likely also preparing some type of statement with the help of legal counsel...

Derek, something you might consider writing an article about is a contrast between what happens to people like Meza and Rossi who don't admit to their cheating versus people whose names I can't recall, that do admit, apologize, are DQ'd, and everyone forgets, maybe forgives, and moves on. You could also compare the difference between RDs/races that DQ quickly versus dragging it out or never DQ'ing despite overwhelming evidence (like VIA Marathon). This article could then become something you could quickly link to and send to athletes that you are investigating and are likely to write about...

Race directors - if you don't already have this in your waivers, you should put something to the effect - "failure to appear in official race photography could result in a DQ if your results are ever in question" as well as some other type of notice that results will be analyzed and extraordinary performances without GPS or athletic validation could be removed.

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Are you a race director who is having your legitimate race results called into question?

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After all, we do not have to prove that you didn't cheat. We just have to show that it can't be proven that you did!

This is excellent work. Well done. However, what you now need to do is a summary post, not of all the details, but an overview of how many camera points Frank doesn't show up on and where they are in the race. As it stands, you have several excellent posts spread out over a dozen pages so they kind of lose their impact to a first time reader.

This also needs sending to L.A.M as they are in the process of reviewing and it certainly won't hurt to increase the preponderance of evidence against Frank. The email of the Chief Operating Officer, who has responded to emails and says the case is under review and thank you to the running community for their patience is:

triathleteguru wrote:

You could also compare the difference between RDs/races that DQ quickly versus dragging it out or never DQ'ing despite overwhelming evidence (like VIA Marathon).

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Race directors - if you don't already have this in your waivers, you should put something to the effect - "failure to appear in official race photography could result in a DQ if your results are ever in question" as well as some other type of notice that results will be analyzed and extraordinary performances without GPS or athletic validation could be removed.

I posted before that I was an RD of a big national race for 6 yrs.

No waivers required for me...one look at you and you are a 'flagged and pending result', no evidence of running entire distance (photos/videos/number checks/timing splits) you are a DQ, and I have done it.

I just returned from a dinner with a well respected RD of a big city race, raised it with him...he would do and does same.

(BTW, I am surprised I am still at full senses after a dinner with him but I digress)

This is the thing ; as an RD with all the effort you have put in you are passionate about your event, you want records broken, and therefore based on entries you already know who the potential high performers are. In fact, you even invite certain runners to your event to run fast times in various age groups.

Given that FM had already run exceptional and questionable times, and that he had also been DQ-ed, do you really think they did not even know he was there. He is not some random Rosie Ruiz, and she was immediately spotted

Its beyond a joke.